Black-Haired Dad Isn’t Something You Reap - Chapter 206

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 206. The Demonic Cult Enshrines the Sacred Flame? It’s Definitely Inspired by Zoroastrianism (2)
After reading through the prepared speech and finishing the broadcast, I stepped out to find Choco waiting for me at the Public Broadcasting Station in the Outer Palace. If she had something to discuss, she could have just called. The fact that she’d made the trip in person suggested this was important.
I assessed the urgency of the matter and asked Croa and my Aunt to step away for a moment. They said they’d wait outside, and Choco glanced around cautiously before speaking to me in hushed tones.
“Didn’t we meet the Doctor the other day?”
“That’s right. Kirke brought them directly.”
That deity must be quite special—they don’t even need a descent vessel and just wander around in their bare form. Since they’re originally an alien, they’re perfectly comfortable in the vacuum of space. By origin, are they an external deity?
“About that operation to hold our breath before becoming a special-grade deity… when exactly are you going to erase our memories? It doesn’t seem like knowing about it would do us any good anyway.”
“Oh no!”
I’d completely forgotten! That’s right! Kirke had mentioned this at the beginning, saying she’d erase our memories once everything was finished! That grandmother locked Kisomalos away and forgot about it too—she’s really made forgetfulness a way of life.
“It’d be better to ask for the memories to be erased now, so we don’t get pestered later with requests to help as people involved in this.”
“I was concerned about that point as well.”
We’re not even ancestral deities, so getting tangled up with other gods would only ruin my life. This was something Choco and I had learned through experience by getting entangled with Lorowi and Chiron, so we couldn’t help but be sensitive about it.
“Let’s go to Aunt!”
“Yes!”
Ancestral deities are always watching over their descendants, after all. We left the broadcasting station and stood near my Aunt, looking up at the sky and shouting like shipwreck survivors, waving our arms frantically and begging for our memories to be erased. Kirke’s descent vessel suddenly appeared with a flash, and she said exactly what I’d expected.
“Oh! I forgot!”
This is the kind of deity who could lock Kisomalos away and forget about it for twenty-one years. Kirke said her descent time was limited and quickly cast spells with incantations. When the magic activated to selectively erase only the desired memories, Choco’s face brightened with relief.
“Ah, now I can rest easy.”
To verify how much memory had been lost, I asked Choco about Xerxes in the Northern Region and the Doctor I’d recently met. Choco knew of both of them, but couldn’t remember what kind of deities they were. The magic had deleted only the necessary parts.
“I’m sorry, you two. It’s not that I don’t trust you or Netcha, but I just can’t trust that Kisomalos!”
“I understand.”
Kirke said she was short on time and quickly cast the magic on me as well, mentioning she’d use it on Netcha and Kisomalos too once she reached the Heavenly Realm.
“…Hmm.”
But even after the magic hit me, I still remember the entire operation to hold our breath before becoming a special-grade deity. What’s going on? Did the magic not work properly?
“Oh, that’s right! An emergency summons order came down by Imperial decree for Pisha.”
“If it’s an emergency, mention that first!”
I tried to hurry to the Main Palace, but Choco grabbed my shoulder and redirected me toward the Military Ministry. Wait—if the Military Ministry was summoning me, that meant they were looking for the Air Force Commander, not the Princess?
“Kazelnu and Croa cannot accompany you. It’s military classified information.”
So it was military-related after all. Had something gone wrong with the support for the Independence Forces? That didn’t seem serious enough to warrant both emergency and classified status.
Anyway, since they were looking for me, I had to go. If it was complicated, I could just ask Shirley to summarize it in three sentences.
I waved goodbye to Croa and my Aunt and headed toward the Military Ministry. The Grand Conference Hall was packed with Father and military generals, and among people my age, there was only Shirley and the Princess of Hecta Duchy.
Ah, the city-state of Hecta had been absorbed into Kisomalos a few years ago and became a duchy. In exchange for receiving a ducal title from Kisomalos and having autonomy recognized, they’d placed their successor princess in our military.
At first, I thought this man was taking everything he could get while dumping a burden on us, but I was amazed to discover the princess was far more capable than I’d imagined. Apparently, she’d recovered about thirty percent of Kisomalos’s expanded territory? Among the Army soldiers, she’s supposedly called the “Mother of the Armored Corps.”
“Oh, Your Highness the Princess. You’re beautiful as always today.”
“Yeah, sure. So you’re big, cool, and everything else today too?”
“Haha! Every day, I train to ensure I can safely serve Your Highness the Princess!”
A tall woman with rippling muscles and long, fragrant golden hair fluttering behind her knelt before me in the manner of ancient knights, bringing my hand to her lips. From somewhere, Shirley appeared wielding a long ruler and tried to strike the princess’s neck.
“I’ll kill you!”
“Shirley, watch your tongue. She’s the princess of a duchy.”
“If you’re Count Achilles, then I’ll kill you first, so it’s fine.”
“No, my life partner can’t die—that would be a disaster.”
I can’t raise Leon alone. The boy’s already solving cubic equations, for crying out loud. If Leon goes off the rails, Shirley is the only one with the intellect to keep him in check. I can’t handle that. Besides, the two of us have been raising the child perfectly well. If we lose one caregiver, Leon won’t be able to adapt, will he? Two mothers is definitely better.
As I spoke, Frey Hecta, the Princess of Hecta Duchy, suddenly lifted me into her arms.
“Don’t worry. I can fill both the role of the child’s mother and your life partner.”
“No, you can’t.”
“Hey! Put Pisha down right now!”
Shirley’s punches were no joke, and despite landing every single one, the woman didn’t budge an inch. This woman was no ordinary powerhouse.
“You there. Turn off the local broadcast.”
“Father! This perverted fool keeps lifting Pisha up and down!”
“The Princess is not cargo. Put her down.”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
Thanks to the Princess’s consideration, I was gently set back on the ground and made my way to the Air Force Commander’s seat. Since the Princess of Hecta was participating as an Army Brigadier General, she ended up sitting far from me. She looked terribly disappointed.
“First, an urgent report. Emperor Astyages is dead.”
How could you drop such news on unprepared people like that? It was so sudden and so grave that the military officials couldn’t stop murmuring among themselves.
It was far too unnatural to call it a natural death—it had to be murder. But whose hand had struck him down? Would this trigger a succession war? How favorable would this situation be for us?
As everyone exchanged theories, Father dropped another bombshell without even asking for silence.
“The Emperor was discovered mummified in the Imperial Palace. Most of the heirs have retreated to their maternal relatives’ territories. The First Princess has inherited full authority and is now appearing on the battlefield.”
The First Princess? That older sister who stood out among the Imperial Family—all silver-haired and golden-eyed—with her black hair and crimson eyes? What in the world was happening in the North? And if she inherited full authority, that made her the Emperor now. An Emperor appearing on the battlefield? What kind of nonsense was this?
“Wherever the First Princess appears, mummified corpses are said to pile up like mountains. She’s conducting indiscriminate slaughter without distinguishing between Imperial Army and Independence Forces.”
What? Indiscriminate slaughter without distinguishing sides? But to wage war, you need your own forces, don’t you? The Princess alone couldn’t massacre entire armies.
“For some reason, the Imperial Army, the Capital Defense Force, and the citizens of the Capital are showing unconditional support for the Princess.”
Ah, so she’s leading the Imperial Palace’s direct forces. But unconditional support? Have they all been brainwashed? As I pondered this, Father echoed my exact thoughts.
“And their numbers keep growing. As if they’ve been brainwashed.”
What could this be? Could it be connected to what Kisomalos and Kirke mentioned back then—that what everyone thought was Zoroastrianism was actually the Demonic Cult? Xerxes in the North must have anticipated this outcome, which is why he tried to prevent Astyages’s power from growing further.
“We’ve received rescue requests from all nations currently fighting for independence, several lords of Astyages, and the Crown Prince and Second Princess of Astyages who are in hiding. We’re planning a full assault on the Capital with Nanakda’s cooperation, but…”
Ah, the teleportation device that Nanakda developed? The Air Force absolutely has to utilize that. The Army will get some too, but naturally, we’ll see the most action.
“Me, me! I volunteer as supreme commander!”
The Air Force Commander can’t sit this one out. I raised my hand eagerly to appeal to Father that I wanted to go, and he responded with a firm laugh.
“I refuse.”
Did he just say “I refuse” instead of “You can’t”?

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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